Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I was arranged to stay at the Village Chief’s house.

My sister’s room was right next door, which made it convenient for me to look over her lesson plans and materials while I filled in for her.

The Village Chief had plenty of spare rooms. Aside from himself, the only other occupant was a Big Black Dog.

The moment I first laid eyes on that Big Black Dog, that social media post involuntarily surfaced in my mind:

[Black dogs grow white scales, the Flesh Well blinks with a thousand eyes, and humanity cannot escape Ailao Mountain!]

The Black Dog was a sighthound, its fur so sleek it shimmered.

I observed it closely; there wasn’t a single white hair on it, let alone any white scales.

The only strange thing was that it didn’t bark.

Even when it saw me, an outsider, it remained silent. It just kept its head low, its two beady eyes staring straight at me.

It was unsettling, sending a chill down my spine.

The sensation was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it at the time.

The Village Chief said it was of the Mountain Guard Dog breed.

He told me that biting dogs don’t bark. He warned me not to be fooled by its silence-if a thief ever tried to break in, they wouldn’t get away without losing a chunk of flesh.

At first, I thought I was just being paranoid.

That changed this morning when I saw the Big Black Dog hiding in the bushes outside the house, swallowing a large rooster.

That’s right-swallowing.

I had been studying lesson plans for two hours and my eyes were strained, so I was looking at the greenery to relieve the fatigue.

That was when I happened to see the Big Black Dog lurking in the grass.

Watching for the right moment, it snapped the rooster’s neck. It didn’t chew; it swallowed the bird whole!

I finally identified the source of that fear I felt when it watched me.

It was the feeling of being targeted by a venomous snake!

The vibe the Big Black Dog gave off wasn’t like a dog at all; it was more like a serpent…

Of course, the village’s strangeness didn’t end there.

Duoji, in Tibetan, means ‘Vajra’ or ‘Auspicious,’ with an extended meaning of ‘Lucky Person.’

The village seemed to have Tibetan cultural roots, yet the objects of their worship were Nvwa and Fuxi-the human-headed, snake-bodied deities.

Using the excuse of a post-meal walk to aid digestion, I wandered around the village.

I discovered that the exterior walls of every household were painted with depictions of Nvwa and Fuxi in union, their long serpentine tails intertwined and extending to the ground like an endless double helix.

“Teacher! Teacher!”

A red-faced boy came running over and asked, “Have you seen my family’s big rooster? I’ve been looking for it for ages.”

I remembered this boy; his name was Erzhu.

He was the one who had mentioned that my sister had been gone for fifty-five days last time.

“The big rooster…”

I hesitated, but in the end, I simply shook my head.

Erzhu sighed, but he quickly cheered up again. “Well, Teacher, if you see the rooster, remember to tell me! My house is at the east end of the village!”

I gave him a nod of agreement.

Watching Erzhu walk away, I returned to the Village Chief’s house to continue organizing my sister’s belongings.

It was then that an old notebook, tucked under several textbooks, caught my attention.

I pulled it out and flipped through it, realizing it was my sister’s diary.

However, the moment I saw the first page, my heart nearly skipped a beat!

[July 12th, Sunny.]

[Erzhu was eaten by the dog. His mother is very happy.]